Building blocks for the future: Continental reinforces focus on digital solutions for the construction business

Innovative tire monitoring solutions ensure correct tire pressure and thus help to reduce operational costs and maximize uptime

In tough conditions such as mining and construction sites, efficiency and safety are key. However, underinflated tires are still a major cause of breakdowns and service calls. On average, one third of fleet tires are underinflated. This not only has an effect on fuel consumption but also on the tire life – with 10 percent underinflation, tread life is reduced by 15 percent and casing life by 20 percent. With 20 percent underinflation, casing life is reduced by up to 30 percent. Hence, optimally used tires and better conserved carcasses can be used for retreading and thereby give the tire several lives. Verifying proper tire pressure and temperature thus maximizes uptime because the risk of breakdowns is reduced and scheduled maintenance no longer needed.

To ensure the correct tire pressure and temperature, Continental has developed its digital tire pressure monitoring systems ContiPressureCheck and ContiConnect. With the help of tire sensors mounted on the inner liner of the tire, the systems monitor, analyse and report data about tire temperature and pressure, thus help optimizing fleet efficiency.

Tire sensors – making the tire intelligent

Continental tire sensors are at the core of both ContiPressureCheck and ContiConnect. The intelligent tire sensors constantly measure temperature and pressure from inside the tire and provide data to be displayed on the dashboard – whether this is on a handheld device, inside the driver’s cabin or on a web portal overseeing the fleet. The alerts and notifications in particular are designed to steer the fleet’s attention to immediate action needs.

For the new Conti CrossTrac truck tire line, customers can select from the main sizes for an intelligent tire, whereas all tires in the OTR ContiEarth portfolio come as intelligent tires with pre-installed tire sensors shipped straight from the factory.

ContiPressureCheck

The ContiPressureCheck system displays the tire sensor’s data in the driver’s cabin or on the handheld device and warns before a condition becomes critical. It is a complete, driver-focused solution for single vehicles and can also be integrated into third-party telematics solutions for 24/7 multiple vehicle monitoring. ContiPressureCheck has now been on the market successfully for five years and is available in 47 countries.

ContiConnect

ContiConnect is Continental’s solution for monitoring tire pressure and temperature remotely, taking digital tire monitoring to the next level. The solution conveniently monitors multiple vehicles and helps fleet managers switch from inflexible manual service routines to targeted, real-time maintenance. Today, the solution mainly targets fleets that return to a yard or construction site on a regular basis.

The yard reader station reads the data off the tyre sensors as the vehicle passes by the receiver in the yard and sends the data to the backend where it is analyzed and interpreted.  

Proven solutions tested under severe conditions 

Both ContiPressureCheck and ContiConnect have proven their value successfully. For example, construction customers such as BetonMastHæhre, the biggest road construction company in Norway, have shown a high level of satisfaction with both. They tested the solutions with the Continental EM-Master in a remote area in Northern Norway. After this test, BetonMastHæhre also purchased several new 40-ton ADTs with ContiPressureCheck integrated on the display of the machines.

Another test customer from the United States, which is a hauler of cement powder and fly ash, reported a reduction of tire-related roadside service calls to zero in the whole eight months of using ContiConnect. CEMEX in the UK have seen a reduction of 43 percent in out-of-hours call outs for tires, with the drivers identifying issues on route thanks to ContiPressureCheck. To prove its ability to withstand severe conditions such as extreme heat and speed, ContiPressureCheck has been tested on the Russian KAMAZ-Master trucks during the Dakar Rally desert race, for example.